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May music reviews

Will Ackerman: Returning - Pieces for Guitar 1970-2004

Mary's Tree (Universal Classics)

There are a few people that I wouldn't mind spending an evening with. Prince Charles, the Beckhams and Michael Jackson don't even get on the short list. Will Ackerman is a clear leader however. A guitarist and composer performing for 35 years. A driving force behind Windham Hill Records and recently with this album marking his first release with his own Mary's Tree imprint. I would be happy to listen either to the story or the guitar.

These are all Will's original compositions and played by him with no accompaniment. Less is certainly more. The music is simple and evocative. Think dappled sunlight and chilled chardonnay. This is no 'music for elevators' but it can easily carry you away in a gentle reverie. The sound is as pristine as newly cut lawn and as clean as an autumn shower.

This is music that sounds good on the most modest of systems. I am currently playing the CD through my iMac and its attached $300 JBL computer speakers. It sounds great. This retrospective collection was put together to fulfill Ackerman's ambition to 'be emotionally connected to every note I played'. He has achieved this goal and then done it with state of the art recording technology that puts the guitar very directly into the room. Don't wait for DVD Audio this is as good a sound as I have heard on any (non-vinyl) source. I am picking this recording as an award winner. John Groom

Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers: A Night In Tunisia

Blue Note

Now this isn't exactly a new album having been recording in 1960, and it's unlikely to be on any jazz top 20 charts currently, but man oh man is it a lot of fun. Joining Blakey were Lee Morgan on trumpet, Wayne Shorter on tenor sax, Bobby Timmons on piano and Jymie Merrett on bass. That's not a bad band when all's said and done.

Kicking the album off is a sprawling, epic version of Dizzy Gillespies A Night In Tunisia. This has it all - blazing solo's, inventive arrangement, great group playing - so much so that the 11 minutes simply fly by. There's real bite to the horns and amazing impact from Blakeys drums throughout the album, giving the music a very live feel. Blakey's solo on Kozo's Waltz is frighteningly intense and technically brilliant. The tempos are generally upbeat although the lovely Lee Morgan composition Yama gives the band a chance to show their gentler side.

This is one of the classic iterations of the constantly changing Jazz Messengers, and one of the classic albums. If you haven't experienced Art's amazing polyrhythmic approach to drumming, or heard Morgan and Shorter really blowing then this is a great introduction. Classics don't go out of date and this is definitely a classic. Highly recommended. Craig Fenemor

Dee Dee Bridgewater: J'ai Deux Amours

Universal/DDB

As an avid Francophile and long time fan of Ms Bridgewater what could be better for me than an album full of Dee Dee singing French songs? There you have the basics of this album, French songs sung in the language of love by an American who has lived on and off in France for many years. What may surprise you is how familiar some of the songs are. Beyond The Sea, If You Go Away, What Now My Love, Autumn Leaves - these were all originally French before being appropriated for English speaking consumption. Go figure.

In putting together the band for this album Dee Dee wanted authentic instrumentation over which she would add her own take on the material. This meant first and foremost that an accordion was needed. The French love accordions and in Marc Berthoumieux she's found a very, very good player whose skills I'm really taken with. Add in guitar, bass (the consummate professional, Ira Coleman playing very well), and drums/percussion and you have a tight yet relaxed band.

Listening to an album sung in a foreign language changes the playing field somewhat. Rather than being able to gain emotion from the lyrics directly, the emphasis here is on the vocalist to impart her/his voice with the message. (Some songs do have a verse or two in English, plus the familiarity of the tunes helps.) Here Dee Dee does very well, though not up to the level of Rosa Passos who I reviewed some months ago. Giving the album good variety is that the arrangements are sometimes fairly standard but on others such as What Now My Love and La Vie En Rose there's a distinct modernist feel.

There's no doubt that Ms Bridgewater's heart is in the project, the songs are very good (except for Girl Talk - not good in English, just as bad in French), the playing is top notch and the recording is beautiful. There's just something missing for me, a certain spark that you'll find on Dee Dee's previous albums like Love And Peace, Live At Yoshi's or Dear Ella. All in this is a good if not great album that's still well worth a listen. Craig Fenemor

Genesis: The Video Show (DVD)

Virgin Records

Most video collections work chronologically from oldest to youngest, (Genesis to Revelation?) not so for The Video Show. It starts with No Son of Mine from 1991 and works back in time to Ripples from 1976. It is amusing to see Phil Collins gain hair as he gets younger! It then jumps forward to 1997 to three tracks off the album Calling All Stations and then back to 1999 for a version of The Carpet Crawlers , which was a track originally sung by Peter Gabriel. In fact no material with Peter Gabriel has been released, quite an oversight considering he was the lead singer for Genesis for their first half dozen albums. Well I guess there is only so much room on a DVD. So, this DVD is a definitive collection of videos from 1976 forward.

The Video Show, or music with pictures, is packed with 32 videos and has a selection of Dolby Digital and DTS audio tracks. The audio remix is superb and I was most impressed with the DTS track, it was smooth and lacked the harshness that most digital compression algorithms cause (two channel dinosaurs would of course prefer two channel PCM). Even the earliest videos have excellent sound quality. The video transfers are good given the varying quality of the source material. This video show has no extras, I guess there wasn't room and that is okay with me because I would much prefer to have a good sound track than an interview with the band's janitor.

Genesis became very good at producing attention-grabbing and amusing videos. Highlights include the Spitting Image puppets used in Land Of Confusion, Benny Hill as Fred Scuttle in Anything She Does and the unforgettable I Can't Dance . If you enjoy Genesis at all, grab this one as it has hours of great music and the videos are thrown in for free. Richard Nelson

Mike Oldfield: Elements, the Best of (DVD)

Virgin Records

Mike Oldfield has been producing intense progressive rock since the early seventies. Tubular Bells, arguably his finest work, hit the top of the charts and propelled him to instant stardom in 1973. Because of the uniqueness of his music the major labels were not interested in releasing it, so it became the first album released on Richard Branson's famous Virgin label.

This video collection begins with a live 1976 BBC TV performance of the full 25 minutes of Tubular Bells (Part 1). Other videos from the late seventies, such as In Dulci Jubilo and Portsmouth, show Mike Oldfield as the virtuoso experimenting with folk instruments and music. In the eighties his approach changed to a more accessible style in the form of Moonlight Shadow and Crime of Passion .

On the technical side the video format is 4:3 and is about what you would expect from video transfers from the late seventies and eighties. I was disappointed with the quality and lack of choice for the soundtrack as only two channel Dolby Digital sound track was offered. Extras on the DVD include a short interview with Mike and some extra videos. All in all a good video collection but the lack of a decent sound track limit its appeal. Richard Nelson

Pepe Romero:
The Art of Pepe Romero - Guitar Favourites (2CDs)
The Rodrigo Collection - CD/DVD

Philips

These two releases surprised in many welcome ways. The first surprise was their local release, second came the inclusion of the Larry Weinstein documentary Shadows and Light on DVD, and finally, just how did Universal know that I had been searching for a recommendable guitar collection for my own collection and for others?

Both CDs contain the undisputed supreme performer of the justly famous Rodrigo guitar concerto in the same recording with Sir Neville Marriner and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields. If you have previously dismissed this work as a lightweight curiosity I urge you to rehear the concerto in this performance. The amount of detail and varied nuance that Romero brings to this performance is totally awe-inspiring. The choice then will be between getting this sublime performance with the DVD (which you will watch once) or the 2CD set with other equally rewarding performances of guitar 'must-haves', which will provide a lifetime of pleasure. A no-brainer for me then, The Art of Pepe Romero is highly recommended. Allan McFarlane

Linda Ronstadt: Hummin' To Myself

Verve

Linda Ronstadt stunned the music world in 1983 when she abandoned a career as a multi-platinum pop / new-wave recording artist to record jazz standards and show tunes with the Nelson Riddle Orchestra. Not surprisingly Linda has decided to release another collection of standards. Hummin' is a collection of jazz and pop songs from American composers such as Duke Ellington, Cole Porter, Frank Loesser and others.

This time round Linda is in a more intimate environment, using a small group instead of the big band of the Nelson Riddle Orchestra. The live, in studio, warts and all recording lets us hear the rustling of turning pages and Linda gasping for air after long and demanding passages. The effect is a powerful and emotive performance that showcases Linda's talent. When she sings at full volume Never Will I Marry, I believe her. The Arthur Hamilton classic Cry me a River never loses its way and its arrangement by Alan Broadbent maintains the drive without losing its passion. It is Linda's ability to relate to the song and convey emotions that make this collection so wonderful.

In a direct comparison with her earlier work which was somehow unconvincing, Linda is now in full control of her considerable musical faculties. The Alan Broadbent arrangements work to highlight a great voice. Recorded in 96/24 resolution, the recording is both open and lush, a real stunner. Richard Nelson

Various: Acoustic Brazil

Putumayo World Music

Billed as the sounds that slide into place as the carnival cools, this medley of bittersweet samba and bossa nova is, in most instances, rich, understated, and delightfully arranged. This is music that is at once multi-faceted and simple, joyous and melancholic.

Across lilting guitar rhythms, the singers intone expressions of quiet despair ("If I want to run, time stops/If I stop to watch, the world goes on") or isolation ("I leave behind many enemies/because I've always been honest"). And woven around these lyrics are deft threads of instrumental phrasing (wistful flute, accordion, cello, or ruminative clarinet) - and consistently the sense that all assembled know how it feels.

If you're nettled or ground down, this music for "defeated souls" will reassure you that others have been there too. But it's equally apt as a soundtrack for a blithe hour of treat-yourself time-out, whatever the weather. Paul Green

Various: Afro-Latin Party  

Putumayo World Music

Very Afro-Latin. Very party. Gorgeous grooves riddled with irresistible rhythm. This is brash, exhuberant music which ought to put the acid on inhibition. If your friends are still capable of downing a rum or tequila or two and snaking in shameless hip-shaking abandon around the dance floor, you're going to be stashing this one on stand-by for that crucial rev-up cue. It's mostly up-tempo samba and salsa driven by metronomic mesmerising percussion, over which trumpets, guitars and keyboards whirl and flourish. Vying for centre-stage in amongst all of this rich activity are, of course, the singers who invariably have no problem unleashing themselves with strident panache on the proceedings - usually fired up by a righteously irrepressible backing chorus. Heady, compelling, and ready to shift you up at least one gear...as long as you're in the mood. Paul Green

Various Artists: Enjoy Every Sandwich - The Songs Of Warren Zevon

Artemis CD DIF012

Excluding best-ofs, American singer-songwriter Warren Zevon released thirteen albums from 1969's Wanted Dead Or Alive to The Wind, recorded in 2003 after he announced that he was terminally ill with cancer. Longtime friend David Letterman invited him onto his late-night chat show - and no one else: this was an hour of nothing but Dave and Warren. During the show Warren remarked that, having been told that he had but a few months to live, he'd learned to get his dry-cleaning done express and to "enjoy every sandwich". Hence the title of this tribute to Zevon and his quirky, sometimes death-laden, songs.

A recent poll in a British newspaper resulted in the opinion that the most startling and attention-grabbing opening lines in a song are

I saw a werewolf with a Chinese menu in his hand

Walking through the streets of Soho in the rain

Here Adam Sandler (presumably the guy from the movie The Wedding Singer), with Mick Fleetwood on drums, nails Warren's best-known song Werewolves of London perfectly. Other stand-outs include Jackson Browne with Bonnie Raitt covering Poor Poor Pitiful Me from the 1976 eponymous album which Browne originally produced, a Cajun-flavoured Monkey Wash, Donkey Rinse by David Lindley and Ry Cooder and a moving My Ride's Here recorded at a Toronto Bruce Springsteen concert a few days after Zevon's death.

Bob Dylan rarities collectors alert: this CD includes Mutineer which Bob performed several times in concert - but, not only does the booklet give no credit to his band members, it erroneously states that this is a "live audience recording from Australia". Not so - Bob never performed this song down under; this one comes from the 7 October 2002 show in Red Bluff, California.

The album closes with an uncredited track, Van Dyke Parks's string arrangement for Keep Me In Your Heart.

As tribute albums go, this is better than most and a loving tribute to a singular talent. Fred Muller

Russell Watson: amore musica

Decca

Watson is the wonder boy from the industrial north of England. He rose from factory worker and pub singer to developing into a multimillion sales singer. His first album, modestly titled The Voice, spent a year at number 1 in the UK Classical Chart. In no particular order he has performed with such notorieties as the Pope, Paul McCartney, US President Bush, the Queen and the Beckhams. On amore modest note some of you will know of him here for his appearance at our own Auckland Domain in 2002 where he appeared in front of over 150,000 people and several dogs.

On top of all this pedigree the guy is slim, handsome and photogenic. He is more than just a pretty boy with a voice however. After surgery for a lump on his vocal chords he decided to take life a tad more seriously. This album is a result of that process where he sings from the heart. It is passionate music that can be played at funerals or weddings. There are moving versions of such classics as I Believe, You Raise Me Up and I'll Walk with God.

I do have one reservation about this recording and it is one that will not surprise regular readers. Decca have overproduced it. Every song has to be lush with strings and preferably a drum kit. The occasional quieter patch is enough however to reassure us that the guy can in fact sing. He deserves the inevitable success that will come with this fourth album. John Groom

Yellowjackets: Altered State

Heads Up/Telarc

Jazz scholarship-style: very focused, precise, and polished; confident, technically challenging, and engineered by craftsmen intent on combining clarity with warmth. This quartet has over two decades of front-line work behind them, and there's no disputing their readiness to push boundaries, via irregular meters, accent on improvisation, or mid-stream shifts in register. And their versatility is consistently evident on this album - veering from punchy funky syncopation to fluid smooth.

Yet there's a suspicion here that reed-man Bob Mintzer, assured though he is, claims too much of the territory whilst the others graft busily along behind. At times, you wait for the break from the sax-dominated lines of development - but it doesn't always come.

One song stands out separate from the rest - The Hope , a gospel-tinted piece co-written by drummer Marcus Baylor's wife Jean who delivers a soulful vocal performance backed by the equally soulful Perry sisters. It wears its heart on its sleeve and has a freshness and expansiveness that is sometimes missing from the instrumental and thematic work-outs which characterise the bulk of this recording. Therein, perhaps, might lie a future for the band: drawing in guest writers and performers who might break that honest but marginally mundane mould more often. Paul Green

Beethoven: Piano Concertos

Rudolf Serkin (piano); Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by Seiji Ozawa (3 CDs)

Telarc

The pianist Rudolf Serkin is one of those legendary musicians held in great awe by many music lovers and not just pianists. His career spanned decades and his recordings were celebrated and numerous. However it is generally held that these recordings were done a little too late in his career to be considered alongside his other notable recordings.

These three CDs have recently been reissued in Telarc's mid-priced Classics series. Having dismissed these performances as lack lustre on their first issue it is somewhat interesting to now rediscover them. Okay, not all performances are a total success, the energy of the fifth is not delivered, the Boston Symphony does not always convince that it is also in awe of their legendary soloist and the recordings are fine without being in the demonstration league, but there are moments of captivating beauty. The third concerto in particular has some gloriously delicious moments, particularly in the more reflective moments of the first and second movements.

The problem here is not really if these are worthwhile on their own merits but, given the huge competition, can one's listening dollar be better spent. Clearly the answer is yes. Seek out the rightfully famous Wilhelm Kempff set on DGG (but don't settle for the terrible Australian pressings) or have some fun with Pierre-Laurent Aimard and Harnoncourt on Warner Classics. Allan McFarlane

Debussy: Orchestral Works

Nocturnes; La mer; Prèlude à l'après-midi d'un faune; Berceuse hèro?que

Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra conducted by Paavo Järvi

Telarc

Debussy, the supreme orchestral colourist in magical performances caught in a one of Telarc's finest recordings. From the outrageous Berceuse hèro?que to the mesmerising tranquillity of the Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun tonal beauty is clearly the highest priority of Järvi and his superb band of players. Every detail of these scores is caught in that often alluring combination of highly detailed yet somehow pastel like smudge at the same time. The result is spellbinding and I urge lovers of these truly wondrous scores to seek this recording out. Yes, there are other recordings that are more heart-felt (Rattle and Karajan come to mind) but there is so much to enjoy here, indeed wallow in, that this will take its place alongside the most distinguished of recordings. Be sure to play this CD at a decent volume on a still night and enjoy! Allan McFarlane

Turtle Island String Quartet (with Ying Quartet): 4+four

Telarc

Telarc can be relied upon to give us well-recorded and innovative jazz; with 4+four they have done both. Describing jazz can be very difficult. Think Stephane Grappelli and give it a harder edge. Think Nairobi Trio and push it out into left field. Think of the Kronos Quartet without Ritalin. This music is lively, worthy of serious listening but still accessible enough that strange chemicals do not need to be ingested to make sense of it.

This is considered the leading edge of 'Chamber Music' but in fact assimilates a wide range of styles. It is music that is likely to appeal more to the head than the heart. I found myself slightly on edge listening to this album and while I could appreciate its cleverness and creativity it is unlikely to be replayed after the review period is over. Recommended for those with a jaded musical palette. John Groom